For many facilities such as schools, hotels, convention centers, churches, and offices it is desirable to utilize rooms and spaces in an efficient manner. At different times, these facilities will often need to use the same space for different purposes. Some activities require the use of furniture such as tables or desks, while at other times, furniture is not needed. These facilities will often move, rearrange, or eliminate the furniture in a room according to the needs of the event. In many instances, these facilities utilize desks or tables for such events as training, test administering, lectures, speeches, conventions, etc. When the furniture is not in use at these facilities it is desirable to minimize the floor space required to store these items.
The desire to utilize spaces for different activities also presents the need to arrange furniture for various applications. Very often, arranging the furniture is cumbersome, time consuming and labor intensive. Similarly, providing an aesthetically pleasing arrangement often requires additional time, effort, and labor.
The tables and desks used in these facilities come in many varieties adapted for many uses. In an effort to reduce the floor space required for storage, some tables and desks are stackable, nestable or gangable, while some are collapsible. One type of nestable table is represented in U.S. Pat. No. 3,326,148 to Jakobsen. This table includes a table top supported by four legs. The distance between one pair of legs is greater than the distance between another pair of legs to accommodate the nesting of the tables when stacked one on top of the other. The tables also include a glide extending along two opposite edges of the table to create a gap between each stacked table to facilitate separation of the stacked tables. Another example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,669 to Marchand et al., depicts a table top hinged to a frame of which the legs of the table are also attached. This hinge allows the table top to be rotated to a vertical position to accommodate a horizontal nesting of the tables.
Such tables provide a marginal space savings when stored. Such tables are often heavy and difficult to move or arrange. This presents problems for the facility that needs to provide accommodating facilities with a minimal investment of time and labor.
There is a need, therefore, for a stackable table that can accommodate a multitude of uses and which can be arranged and moved with minimal effort and time required. There is also a need to provide an aesthetically pleasing arrangement without requiring extra time and labor. Optimally, the table would be simple to maneuver and arrange. There is a further need for a stackable table that encumbers minimal floor space while in storage.